


Survivors

by Lastwaterbender



Category: The Martian
Genre: Beth gets left behind as well, F/M, Friends With Benefits
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-20
Updated: 2016-08-19
Packaged: 2018-06-09 12:54:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6908107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lastwaterbender/pseuds/Lastwaterbender
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mark Watney and Beth Johanssen both get left on Mars.</p><p>Based on  http://lastwaterbender.tumblr.com/post/131810285556/headcannon</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Sol 19

“Mark! Mark! You’ve got to get up!” Cried Johanssen, it was nearly lost to the high winds that surrounded them. The look on her face was one of panic as she helped him sit up. He had been taken out by a satellite and the wires had ensnared her as well.

The MAV was gone and Mark was barely conscious.

He groaned and swayed a little, seeing stars. Everything hurt. There was a metal rod sticking out of his side. “Come on, Mark.” She yelled, tugging on his arm to help him stand up. “We need to get inside.”

“The MAV?” He gasped as he stumbled to his feet.

“It’s gone! She yelled over the wind and his heart stopped beating. “We need to get your suit off and you stitched up before you bleed out.”

How could she be so fucking calm at a time like this? She wrapped his arm around her should as she helped carry his weight to the HAB, her short stature didn’t help much, but only to encourage him to move faster to safety. He could hear her talking, but the blood rushing in his ears made everything muffled as the white dome appeared like a beacon in front of them.

It had taken them entirely way too long to get there and he knew he wasn’t being as helpful as he could, but Johanssen didn’t complain as she dragged him through the thick sand. She pressed the buttons to open the door and held onto him tightly to keep him upright. It felt like the longest 3 minutes of his life waiting for the thing to depressurize.

He was dragged inside airlock and she awkwardly had to reach to the door to shut it, if she let him go he would most likely end up on the floor. Pressing more buttons, everything spun around him causing him to sway. “Stay up, Mark. We’ve got to wait for it to pressurize.” That was enough encouragement to keep him up for a few moments.

The green light pinged and she threw the door open, he was unceremoniously thrown into the first chair that she saw. She threw her helmet off and quickly made work of his before starting to remove his suit. She couldn’t make it far because the rod stood out about four inches from his abdomen.

It hurt like a bitch. “Jesus! At least buy me dinner first.” He complained.

She gave him a sympathetic look. “We are going to have to move to the lab.” She said softly. “It’s where the trauma kit is.”

He nodded and took a deep breath before hauling himself to his feet and waddling slowly into the other room, giving her enough time to strip out of her suit before she worked on him. She returned and immediately started to work, without even counting she pulled out the rod on her first try. “FUCK!” He screamed.

She pushed down the rest of his suit and shoved a wad of gauze on the bleeding. “I don’t think I got it all.” She said softly, she motioned for him to hold the gauze as she searched the trauma kit for some forceps.

Watney took a deep breath as she turned around to look him in the eye. In her hand was a tranquilizing pen and she stabbed it a few times around the gauze, he didn’t think it did much. “Ready?” She asked and he groaned, before inhaling and exhaling forcefully a couple of times and removing the gauze. Carefully, she removed the imbedded piece of metal as he screamed in agony. But when she was done, it felt tons better.

He didn’t even notice that she pinched his skin together and stapled it closed. He fell back into the chair and closed his eyes, his breathing labored and skin moist with sweat. “Thanks.” He said exhaustedly.

She nodded with a soft smile and handed him some Vicodin. “I’m going to go clean up.” Her EVA suit was covered in red dust and blood.

She left him in the chair and he looked around the empty lab. They were stranded on Mars. “Fuck.”

/

A while later, Watney worked up the energy to get up from the chair. At some point, Johanssen placed a foil blanket over him to care for shock and so he wrapped it tightly around himself and went in search of Johanssen.

She was hunched over a computer, her head resting on her hand as she looked at the screen. As he got closer he could see the tears reflected off the lights. She quickly wiped them away and turned to look at him. “Hey.” He said laying a hand on her shoulder.

“How are you feeling?” She asked, trying to look normal.

“I’ve been better.” He answered, what else was there to say? He gave her the once over to see if she suffered any injuries from their tumble in the dirt. “How are you?”

“I’m okay.” She answered. “I hit my head when I landed, so I think I lost consciousness for a few minutes.”

He moved closer to her and picked up her chin to look at him, she had a nice gash that she had cleaned up and taped against her temple where she must have hit the side of her helmet. “Your head has to be killing you.”

She nodded. “I wanted to do a systems check to see how fucked we are. I will take something later.” She said, rubbing her temples.

He took a seat next to her. “Well? What’s the diagnosis?” He asked.

“Everything is working fine, except communication is down because that was nearly killed us.” She answered almost sadly, they had no way to tell Earth that they were still alive. They had no way to contact the MAV or HERMES. “I can’t even tell you if the storm is passing us.”

Watney looked at his feet and sighed, suddenly feeling sick to his stomach. “Will you be able to fix it?” He asked. The real question was, if they got the coms going, then what? There isn’t another manned mission to Mars for another four years and it wasn’t like HERMES could turn around.

She only shrugged. “I don’t know.” She answered with a heavy sigh. “I won’t know until I can go outside and see if I can repair it. Even then it’s a very long shot.”

He placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze after she rubbed her temples again. “Why don’t you go climb into bed and I will get you something for that headache.” There was nothing that she could do at the moment, so she nodded and got up, padding quietly towards the bunk as he went to grab some meds.  

Her bunk was the top left and normally easy to climb up, but she was more sore than she had let on to. So she settled herself into Beck’s bed, which was the next one down. She buried her face into his pillow, forcing herself to keep the tears at bay. They were 100% fucked.

Mark’s footsteps could be heard in the other room, and she concluded that it could’ve been a lot worse. It could’ve been one of them left alone on a desolate planet.

He appeared next to her, not saying anything about her not being in her own bed, handing her some small white tablets. “Vicodin?” She asked.

“You deserve the good stuff.” He said hoarsely as he handed her a cup with water.

She didn’t argue as she downed the pills in one go. “Thanks.” She whispered, handing him the cup back. He then took her hand in his for a moment, lending his strength and reassuring her that they weren’t alone.

“Get some sleep, we will figure things out tomorrow.” Mark promised and turned to his bed across from her, down one.

/

She woke up sometime later, her head had stopped hurting, but everything else was still sore. She didn’t want to move, ever again. She felt content, wrapped in Beck’s stuff and imagined that none of this happened.

Her eyes opened and she looked around the room. Mark wasn’t in his bed, but she could hear him quietly talking from his desk in the corner of the room.

“… . From what I can gather, both Johanssen and I were struck by the communications dish and tossed about 100 meters west of the MAV. The rod I was impaled with went through my bio monitor so the others couldn’t find me. With the coms down, I’m assuming they couldn’t find Johanssen’s readings either because of how far we were launched. I’m surprised that she only walked away with what I assume is a mild concussion.”

She listened to his voice drone on. “Tonight we are at a standstill, we need to figure out how we are going to survive and how we are going to communicate with earth. One good thing is that they sent enough food for sixty-one days, that’s for six people and so we have a while before we’ll starve. Beth doesn’t eat a lot and I will have to ration, but it’s do able. Beth will work her magic in order to get communications going, she’s smarter than I will ever be in that department. I will have to pull my weight around, so I’m going to go to sleep and then I’m going to solve our food problem. Watney out.”

He got up and crossed the room. She had buried her face into the pillow to pretend that she hadn’t listened to him record in his journal. His footsteps were light as his warm hand shook her gently awake. “Beth.” He whispered. “Wake up for a moment.”

She opened her eyes and turned to look at him. “Hey.” She said hoarsely, she knew it was from crying. “How long have I been out?”

“About two hours.” He answered, rubbing his hand comfortingly up and down her back. “Concussion protocols mean I have to wake you up every two hours.”

She nodded in understanding, she was still drowsy. “Your stitches?” She asked, unable to form full sentences.

“I changed them while you were sleeping, they’re okay.” He answered, his hand leaving her back to brush her hair off her face.  

She flopped on to her back and sighed heavily. “We’re screwed.”

He took her hand in his and gave it a squeeze. “Try not to think about it, get some sleep. Tomorrow we’ll figure things out.” He responded softly before crossing the room to climb into his bed.

She rolled over with her back to him to give herself the privacy to silently break down. It really was just the two of them. She coked back a sob and buried her face into Beck’s pillow, it smelled like him and it was enough comfort to fall into a fitful sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

“. . . . Tomorrow we will venture forth in memory of Astronauts Beth Johanssen and Mark Watney.” Repeated the TV from Teddy Sanders’ office. It was a recording from earlier, when he gave the eulogy for the two astronauts who died on Mars.

The entire world was reeling at the loss, both of them were well liked by the population. He never wanted to tell another family that their son or daughter had died on a mission. They stood in front of him as he spoke, sobbing uncontrollably and he nearly lost his strong façade.

He sat at his desk and turned the TV off, taking a drink from the glass in front of him. He had just sent Commander Lewis the transcript of the funeral as per her request. Those on the HERMES were in bad shape.

Three of them functioned as well as anyone who had lost people close to them, but one of the barely could function. Commander Lewis had revealed to him in their last transmission that Christopher Beck and Beth Johanssen had started down the path towards a relationship, but she didn’t reveal the extent of it. It threw the psychology department into a spiraling abyss.

When asked for clarification, Commander Lewis would offer none.

He took another drink as Vincent Kapoor breezed through the door. His eyes looked over the glass, giving the Director of NASA a judging glance. “Whiskey?”

Teddy shook his head. “Iced tea.” He answered as he set the glass back down.

“Excellent speech today.” He said taking a seat in front of him.

The director nodded his thanks, knowing full well that wasn’t what Vincent came in for. “What do you want Vincent.” His head was starting to hurt.

“Satellite time.” He said simply and Teddy glared at him.

This was the third time he had asked for satellite time since the incident, but in his good conscience put the bodies of the fallen astronauts on TV. “Again Vincent? We need to start focusing on the Schiaparelli Crater. . .”

“Come on! With all that stuff up there, I can convince congress to give me a sixth mission. . . “He pleaded and Teddy rolled his eyes, wishing that the ice tea really was whiskey. Vincent didn’t understand that he was in mourning, the whole goddamned country was in mourning.

/

Beck was a mess.

Commander Lewis spent the last few days keeping an eye on him. She never had to worry about his mental state before, but now she was worried that he was going to hurt himself.

During astronaut training, the ARES III crew had spent many hours with the NASA psychologists and psychiatrists to make sure that they were mentally prepared and stable for the mission and as commander of the crew, she was privy to the post sessions information about the five others that were joining her in space.

After the first few weeks of sessions, they noted that Johanssen, being single and very young, was going to cause tension on board between Beck and Watney, both single and young themselves. It was stated that both males were attracted to the female and would probably fight for her affection. Melissa Lewis had to scoff, did the shrinks actually believe that Johanssen, who was 98% attached to her computer screen would allow for this to happen? Or because she wasn’t married that her feminine wiles would turn her into a Jane Austin character.

What was this? The 1960’s?

Lewis, as she got to know them on a very personal level, knew that Watney was attracted to her for her knowledge and skills, they were very much alike in the fact that they are both tinkerers and tended to mess with things that were fine to begin with. They bickered like brother and sister, he was very protective over in especially in the male dominated field. She had seen him defend her honor multiple times, but she had also seen Beth Johanssen punch a guy in the face.

Doctor Christopher Beck on the other hand, he was the one that she had to worry about. Johanssen was attracted to him and he was attracted to her. Lewis knew that it was going to cause her a headache later on in the mission, but save for a stern ‘leave the girl alone’ speech, she let the grab ass slide.

In the days since they had left Mars, she had learned that it was more than attraction, he was in love with her. She had also learned after a few failed attempts of getting him to talk that the pair of them were on the course to a relationship. A couple of stolen Martian kisses and long nights spent wasted in laughter prior to landing.

He hadn’t spoken since they boarded HERMES, except for clinical reasons and even then she was sure that he wouldn’t talk if it weren’t for necessity.

He hadn’t slept.

Or ate anything since they boarded.

It was on the third day that Lewis snapped at him. He sat alone in the kitchen, long had Martinez and Vogel gone to bed that she had enough of it. “You’ve got to snap out of this Chris if we’re going to make it home.” 

He still poked at is food, not looking up at her. “Chris.” She pleaded as she placed a hand on his arm. “Neither of the would want this for you, Beth wouldn’t want this for you.”

It was like a punch in the stomach and all the breath escaped him as he dropped his fork on the table. “You don’t know that.” He rasped.

“No, I don’t, but I am certain that both of them loved you enough to want you to be happy should something happen to them.” She said giving his arm a squeeze.

He slumped over, his hands covering his face and fell silent. “I should’ve kept looking. They couldn’t have gone that far! I could’ve kept looking for her!”

Lewis took a deep breath. “Stop blaming yourself for something that you can’t control, their bio-monitors weren’t reading anything anymore, there was nothing we could do.” She reasoned passionately, tears escaped her eyes. “There was nothing we could do, Chris.”

He took a stuttering breath, tears streaking down his face. “I loved her so much.” He whispered.

She gathered him into her arms, allowing him to silently cry against her without judgment. His shoulders shook violently, her shirt becoming damp at the junction of her neck and shoulder. “I know, Chris.” She cooed, in an attempt to comfort him.

That night, Chris slept with the help of a sleeping aid and Melissa cried herself to sleep.

//

SOL 19

When Mark woke up, he was alone. Slowly he got out of his bed, everything ached. He walked towards the main room that had its lights dimmed to see Johanssen dozing at her computer. The screen had gone black, she had been asleep for a while.

It broke his heart to see that she was wrapped in a hoodie that clearly wasn’t hers, it was much larger and the name BECK rested between her shoulder blades. He knew that she had feelings for the resident doctor who was now on his way back towards earth.  The rest of the crew had been gone now for almost a week and Watney knew that Johanssen was struggling with Beck’s absence, she took over his bed and his clothes, he had only commandeered Martinez’s extra pillow.

He shook this sickening feeling in his stomach as he neared her, placing a warm hand on her back causing her to jump. “It’s just me.” He said quietly. “How’s your head?”

“It hurts.” She said hoarsely, she had been crying. “I took some Tylenol.”

He looked at the clock on the wall, he had been asleep for nearly twelve hours. “You could’ve woke me up. . .” He started, feeling bad that she had been up, clearly actually accomplishing stuff while he had been asleep.

“Don’t worry about it, I couldn’t sleep anymore.” She said with a shrug before getting up. “Come on, I need to look at your stitches.”

He nodded and obediently followed her back into the medbay. She waited for him to slowly take his shirt off as she snapped on some gloves. Beth poked the red skin around it and he winced in pain. “We should put you on some antibiotics, just in case.” She said, turning to grab a gauze pad and pouring some water onto it. “I took inventory of everything to see where we are at.”

Mark hissed again and tried not to move away from her grip. “And?”

“We have enough food for about 300 Sols, but I think we can stretch it pretty far if we start rationing now.” She explained, switching to rubbing alcohol to clean his skin. “On the bright side, we have real food with all the fixings for Thanksgiving. . .”

“Real food?” He said, wincing again.

Beth nodded and stopped to look him in the eye. “Yeah, you know turkey, stuffing and gravy. They even sent us real potatoes to mash.”

Real potatoes. Not the freeze dried knock off they were usually fed: Earth grown, resilient potatoes.

A light turned on in his brain.

He grabbed her arms, wide eyed. “We have real potatoes.” He said and she looked at him with concern, like he had finally gone crazy. “We have real potatoes!” This time he jumped up off the chair. “I’m a botanist.” Disappearing down the hallway, leaving a very confused Johanssen in his wake.

“What the hell?” She asked herself as she cleaned up her supplies, shaking her head.

Later, as she got back to work on the systems check, he returned with a tablet in his hands. “We’re not going to die on this God forsaken planet.” He said with the widest grin on his face.

“How do you figure?” She asked as he set the tablet down in front of here.

A smile cracked on his face as he looked at her smugly. “I’m going to farm the potatoes.” He said and she struggled to comprehend.

“In Martian Soil?” She asked with a raised brow.

“I’m a botanist, I can totally do it.” He said with a smile and she still looked at him in disbelief. “I know it’s crazy, but hear me out. . .” He went into his entire thought process, which was really just him babbling about dirt.

After a while he stopped talking and waited for her to respond, or to be excited or whatever. She didn’t understand a single word that he said. “What do we do first?” She asked, conceding to his crazy plan.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Survivor III
> 
> Title: Survivors
> 
> Author: LastWaterBender
> 
> Fandom: The Martian
> 
> Relationship: Johanbeck, Watney/Johanssen
> 
> Summary: Based on my headcanon where Watney wasn’t the only one left behind on Mars.
> 
> http://lastwaterbender.tumblr.com/post/144652622516/survivors
> 
> http://lastwaterbender.tumblr.com/post/145082581256/survivors

SOL 42

“If I have to haul another bucket of dirt, I am going to scream.” Beth groaned as she took off her helmet. They had spent the last few days dragging buckets of Martian soil into the HAB.

Watney took off his helmet and set it next to hers on the shelf. “I think we’re good on SOIL.” Watney said, correcting her because it was so much more than dirt, it was going to be a lifesaving tool, as he peeled off his cap, it was damp with sweat.

She rolled her eyes as she peeled her off her suit. “So what other back breaking task do we have to do next?” She asked, she really just wanted to take a shower. They had spent the last few days, not only collecting dirt, but they had cleaned off the solar panels and removed a good portion of the stuff in the main lab, tossing it outside the lab. She even had to re-staple his wound after it ripped open.

“I say we take the rest of the day off and tomorrow we can start with the fertilizer and planting…”

She gave him a dirty look. “What do you mean we?” She asked, she had heard his plan for ‘fertilizer’ and didn’t like it one bit and he looked over at her, his look matching hers. “While you deal with that, I’m going to work on the com system.”

“Come on, the fertilizer is the fun part!” He said, sliding off his suit and hanging it up.

Shaking her head, she placed her hands on her hips. “For the botanist.” She answered. “Not for the computer nerd, who has had her share of botany for a long time. I’m going to go take a shower.”

He rolled his eyes as she disappeared down the hallway. He then released the breath he was holding, forcing himself to not be annoyed with her. He shook his head and took a seat at the remaining table, he had to figure out the water situation.

What he needed was a lot of water.

Good thing he knew how to make water. He had hydrazine from the MDV and he could make fire, not easily. NASA didn’t like to send things into space that had the chance to explode. He racked his brain for something that he could light on fire, maybe one of the other crew brought something.

He got up and walked into the sleeping area for something to burn, but stopped when he realized that he walked in on a scantily clad Beth Johanssen, who stood in nothing but a towel and who was rubbing lotion on her bare legs. “Ah! I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you get out of the shower.”

She shrugged. “No worries,” She answered with her back to him, she dug though her stuff to grab a change of clothes. “Did you decide to throw in the towel for the evening?”

“Ish.” He said, he really couldn’t tear his eyes off her long legs. It had been a long time since he had even thought about sleeping with a woman and now here was one, practically naked in front of him. He could feel himself harden.  

“I know you’re just itching for another episode of Happy Days.” She said and turned around, catching him checking her out.

He flushed and turned away. “I’m sorry!” He said.  She folded her arms tightly around herself and looked at him curiously, not entirely sure what he was talking about. Crossing the room, she placed a hand on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to stare…”

“It’s okay, Mark.” She said and he turned to look down at her. Her arm was still folded across her stomach, putting emphasis on her chest. “I’m not angry.”

Mark licked his lips, treading on delicate ground and took a glance at her, his eyes going right to her chest and he turned away, unsuccessfully pushing the impure thoughts away. “I’m sorry! It’s just been a while since…”

She chuckled lightly and stood on her toes to press a chaste kiss to his cheek. “I understand.” She said and he finally looked at her. “I’m not opposed to the idea of us fucking our brains out, I mean NASA isn’t around anymore to tell us what we can and can’t do, I mean what else are we going to do on down time?”

He raised a brow and thanked every god out there for Beth Johanssen, trust her to throw out social norms for boredom. “But until your stitches heal and you won’t bleed all over me anymore…” She said through his thoughts. She took a step back from him with a wide grin on her face. “I’m going to go change, we can make out for a bit if you want.”

When she disappeared into the bathroom, he threw his fist in the sky happily. His long drought of abstinence was about to end! There was some major bonus’ for him right now, Beth Johanssen was hot! They were going to be the first people to have sex on this god forsaken planet, they were probably going to be the first people to die on it too, but he was taking it one day at a time.

His thoughts went into a darker place, what about her and Beck? He knew that Beck had feelings for her and was waiting for them to get back to earth, she HAD to have had returned those feelings. He wouldn’t have ever made a move on her because she had Beck’s name written all over it and now he was minutes away from making out with her and possibly a blowjob because they were bored.  Mark suddenly felt guilty, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea.

“I was thinking, we should put four mattresses on the floor and make a big ass bed, or we can stack them in two…” Beth said walking out of the bathroom, with a towel on her head and stopped when she saw that Mark hadn’t moved. “What’s wrong?”

“What about Chris?” He asked and she froze. Trust Mark to think of others at a time like this.

She looked to her feet and bit her lip, suddenly a wave of sadness crashed over her. “I …” She started and took a deep breath, the rest of the ARES III crew leaving was still a soft spot. Mark moved and took her in his arms as she took a staggering breath against him. “Chris is on his way back to earth, even if by some miracle someone at NASA realizes that we’re alive, the next mission to Mars isn’t for another 4 years and if by an even bigger miracle we survive that long then it’s going to be another year or so before we get home…”

He held her tightly, knowing the grim reality that they faced and until they could get the communications up and running, they were running blind. “I didn’t mean to upset you.” He whispered, pressing an affectionate kiss to the side of her head. “Come on, let’s go to bed.”

She looked back at our feet. “Can we still put the mattresses on the floor?” She asked, almost meekly. “I don’t want to sleep alone tonight.”

He nodded, “Of course.” He said, if he was honest with him he needed it as much as she did. He pulled off Vogel’s and Martinez’s mattresses off his side of the room, stacking them next to the wall and coming over to help her pull Lewis’ off. Beth chose to leave Beck’s bed and took hers down and stacked them on top of each other next to the other stack.

Beth made the bed as he got changed into his pajamas. He moved slowly, his muscles sore from three SOLS of moving soil inside, as he pulled his shirt down Beth stopped him to look at his stitches, her hand on his bare chest causing him to groan.

She backed away as if she had burned him. “Does it hurt?” She asked concerned.

He chuckled and pushed his shirt down. “No.” He said and she tried to interpret his body language. “I just can’t be on my best behavior right now if you keep touching me.”

Beth bit her lip looking guilty and he had to chuckle. “And your hands are freezing.” He said to lighten the mood.

It helped a little and the guilt dropped. “I promise as soon as your staples come out, we won’t leave the bed for a solid 24 hours.” She promised to him and he nodded. “Come on, let’s watch another episode of Happy Days.”

Both of them crawled into the bed and Beth swiveled the monitor so that they both could watch the screen. They shifted a few times in order to get comfortable, Watney moaned. He had bumped his wound and his semihard on that he had going on wasn’t going away anytime soon.

Mark ended up on his back, with his arm around Beth (who knew she liked to cuddle?), her head on his shoulder as she reached up to click play and then placed her hand on his chest.

_Sunday, Monday, Happy Days/Tuesday, Wednesday Happy Days/ Thursday, Friday, Happy Days_

As the show started, Beth found that she couldn’t focus on the screen. She watched Mark, who chuckled along with the laugh track. Mark Watney was so sweet. Never had she thought that she would be in this position with him, just shy of nearly sleeping with him. She found that she was looking forward to having sex with him. Beck was on his way back home and hopefully will find someone that will make him happy, she was a realist and knew the chances of making it home was slim to none. She might as well as make the best of it while she was still breathing. She wondered what it would be like to be in a relationship with him. What was it like to kiss him?

He looked down at her and caught her watching him. “What?” She reached up and pulled him down for a soft kiss. When she pulled back, he looked down at her with a confused smile. “What was that for?”

“Curiosity mostly.” She answered with a bright smile.

He shook his head and turned his attention to the screen. He held her a little tighter and she allowed herself to fall asleep in the warmth of Mark’s arms.


	4. Chapter 4

Mindy Park sat in the mission control room rethinking her life.

How did all the extra years of grad school add up to her sitting in a dark room at one in the morning, babysitting satellites over a desolate planet. Oh yeah, the promise to write off her student loans if she stuck around for at least five years.

She clicked through her emails and found one from Vincent Kapoor, head of the Mars Missions.

_Mindy,_

_Please check the following coordinates and report back to me._

_[49.8°N 339.3°E](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Ftools.wmflabs.org%2Fgeohack%2Fgeohack.php%3Fpagename%3DAcidalia_Planitia%26params%3D49.8_N_339.3_E_globe%3AMars&t=NTM5MWE0NDM4YWIwYzE0N2I0NmUzYWY2MjgxNmY5ZTRlODk2ZWVkMSxQMkYzV3YzbQ%3D%3D) _

_Vincent Kapoor_

She brought up the coordinates and zoomed in. Acidalia Planitia. Sounded familiar enough and as she zoomed in closer she could see the HAB. Oh yeah.

Scrolling in closer, something caught her eyes. The solar panel were clean.

She brought up the satellite image from the day after the Ares III crew left Mars to see that the solar panels were covered with sand and that the rover seemed to have moved. She flipped from picture to picture for a good ten minutes before it finally clicked. Someone was alive on Mars.

Picking up the phone, she dialed the operator. “This is Mindy Park from SatCon, I need the emergency contact for Vincent Kapoor.” She said breathlessly, the guard on the other end seemed startled and asked if it was actually an emergency. “Yes! It is an emergency.”

Mindy wrote down the ten-digit code and hung up the phone. She had to take a few stabling breaths before she dialed Vincent. After the fifth ring it picked up. “Hello?” Asked a tired voice on the other end.

“They’re alive!” She said, unable to contain her excitement.

She was met by silence on the other end. “What? Who is this?” Asked Vincent.

Mindy took another deep breath, mentally kicking herself. “This is Mindy Park from SatCon.” She started. “I’m sorry to wake you, but they’re alive. On Mars. Beth Johanssen and Mark Watney are alive.” Much better.

“They’re alive?” He asked, suddenly awake. She could hear him throw the covers away and the bed squeak. “I’m on my way.”

/

Thirty minutes later, SatCon filled with the highest people at NASA. Teddy Sanders, Annie Montrose, Mitch Henderson and Vincent Kapoor were huddled around her work station. She brought up the image on to the large screen in front of the room. “These were taken from today.” Vincent said as he reached over the keyboard and hit the arrow to go back. “This was from Sol 18.” He flipped back and forth between the two pictures. There were noticeable differences and they all knew what it meant, even though none of them said it out loud yet. Vincent had called the three of them on his way in stating that there was an emergency.  

“How sure are we of this?” Asked Teddy, there was a deep sinking feeling in his stomach.

“Nearly a hundred percent.” Vincent said, flipping the picture a couple more times.

“The solar panels have been cleaned.” Commented Annie, folding her arms.

“They could’ve been cleaned by wind.” Teddy said annoyed, he didn’t enjoy waking up at zero god thirty for nothing. “One thing at a time, what makes you so sure that one or both of them are alive?”

“For starters, there are no bodies.” He explained passionately.

Teddy shrugged his tired shoulders. “Could’ve been buried under sand and at this point it’s like finding a needle in a haystack…”

“Look at all the junk outside the HAB.” Vincent moved the picture again. “And look at Rover II, it’s been moved.” He persisted.

Teddy shrugged. “Commander Lewis probably forgot to document the move.” He argued, not coming up with a reasonable answer for the junk that now littered Mars.

Mindy shook her head, speaking in front of the big fish. “Not likely, Commander Lewis is meticulous with that sort of stuff.”

The director of NASA folded his arms and sighed, but Annie spoke. “Why not talk to Commander Lewis? Let’s get her on CAPCOM and ask her directly.”

There was a stillness in the room. “Because,” Teddy said. “If one or both of them are alive, we don’t want the Ares III crew to know.”

“What?!” Annie blew up. “How can you not tell them? Beck can hardly function as it is…”

“They have another ten months on their trip home.” Teddy explained. “Space travel is dangerous. They need to be alert and undistracted. They’re sad that they lost two crewmates, they’d be devastated if they found out that they abandoned them.”

Annie looked at Vincent, pale. “And you’re okay with this?”

Vincent shrugged. “It’s a no-brainer, they can deal with the emotional trauma when they aren’t flying a billion-dollar spaceship.”

Mitch Henderson spoke up, clearly disgusted with Vincent’s take. “Chris Beck isn’t functioning up there, he won’t deal with emotional trauma when he gets back and finds out that he left those two on Mars, it’d probably kill him. Hell it’s killing him now!” He growled.

“Fuck.” Annie sighed, running fingers through her hair. “When do you want to go public?”

“What’s your take?” Teddy asked, ignoring Mitch’s tirade.

“Legally, we have twenty-four hours before we have to release it.” She said, already feeling the headache building behind her eyes. “We’ll need to prepare a statement, we don’t want people working it out on their own.”

“Okay.” Teddy agreed. “Put together a statement.”

She rolled her eyes. “Dear America, you remember that really nice funeral we had for Mark Watney and Beth Johanssen, well they’re totally alive. HAHA JK. Love NASA.” She grumbled and turned on her heels to leave.  She threw her hands in the air dramatically. “FUCK!”

The clicking of her heels as she disappeared down the hall was the only sound, until Vincent took charge. “Alright, first things first we need to figure out how to communicate with them.” He announced.

“Alright.” Teddy said. “Get on it. Take anyone you want from any department. Use as much overtime as needed, we need to find a way to talk with them. Come on Mitch, you’re going to California and I’m going to Chicago.”

Three pair of eyes fell on him confused. “Why?” Asked Vincent.

“Johanssen is from California and Watney is from Chicago, we’ve got to talk to their parents before the news breaks live.” Teddy explained and Mitch stood up to follow him.

“They’ll be happy to hear that they are alive.” Said Mindy in a small voice.

Teddy smiled grimly. “Yeah, but if my math is correct, they are going to starve to death before we can help them.”

“Fuck.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rated M

SOL 44

Johanssen worked quietly in her make shift ‘office,’ they had moved her computer stuff into the corner of the bedroom so that he could farm in the main lab. She was mapping out her missions to Pathfinder, which was an unmanned mission to put a rover on Mars from the 1990’s, because in theory the she could scavenge parts from it to repair their communication satellites or even get it to work. She was leaving tomorrow on her first extended run since they scavenged parts from Rover I, to see how far she could go.

If she remembered correctly, the battery had failed and the mission had been canned.

She had faith though that between the two of them, they would be able to fix it.

“Do you know if Martinez brought down a crucifix with him?” Mark asked, breezing through the bedroom and over to the personal items that they had stored in bins on Vogel’s empty bed.

 “We’ve been stuck up here for weeks and finally you find religion?” She asked looking up from her computer screen.

“Ha, ha.” He rolled his eyes at her as he opened the bin and started digging through clothes and pictures until he reached the small wooded cross. “No, I need it for science. Ah! Here it is.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “For science?” She asked.

Mark shoved the belongings back into the case and shut the lid. “Yeah, it’s literally the only thing on this god forsaken planet that I can burn. I need fire in order to separate. . .”

“Like literal Hellfire?” She asked, but couldn’t keep her smile away. “Because that’s what you’re going to get if you burn a crucifix.”

He rolled his eyes again and scoffed as she laughed. “You think you’re funny, but you’re really not.” He said. “I’m sure the big man upstairs will forgive me for this one.”

/

SOL 45

Her first Sirius Mission was sort of a success.

She drove for three hours, stopped and did a short EVA to switch out the battery cells before turning around. She bet she could go a lot further if she sacrificed the heating system, but currently she wasn’t willing to mostly because Mars was fucking cold and the laws of thermodynamics was a major dick.

Noting that heating was a problem that she would have to solve when she got back to the HAB, she turned Rover II around and started her trek back towards the Potato Dome, as she affectionately called it as she left that morning.

Mark was going to turn hydrazine into water, chemistry really wasn’t her thing, but he seemed certain that it would produce enough water. There was a twinge in her stomach, she missed Mark. It had been the longest they had been separated in weeks.

She drove over a small hill and looked over at the horizon as her thoughts drifted off towards a certain brown eyed doctor that was millions of miles away, heading home and she sighed. She missed him too.

Beth shook the thoughts away, she needed to focus on the mission.

“Sirius II will involve us getting digging the fucking Radioisotope Thermal Generator up so that we can drive farther without freezing our asses off.” She reported to the small GoPro camera. “Once we can drive about six hours in between charging, it will only take us about 20 SOLs to get to Pathfinder and back, which will make us 20 SOLs closer to communicating with Earth and the Hermes.”

When she finally reached the HAB after another three hours of the most boring road trip in existence, she knew instantly that something felt off. The lights were dimmed in the main portion of the HAB as if he had gone to bed, she looked at her watch, at 7pm.

Quickly, she plugged in the Rover before stepping inside the air lock. 4 minutes until the pressure stabilized and she stepped into the darkness. “Mark?” She called out into the soft hums of the life support.

There was no answer, she took off her helmet and set it in the cubby as she walked past the Potato Dome that had condensation building on the plastic. He did it, he actually did it!

She entered the bedroom to see him lying face down on the bed in just sweat pants. “Mark?” She asked. He gave a deep sigh and groaned into the pillow. “Are you okay?”

It took all of his effort to roll over to his back so he could look at her. “Yeah.” He wheezed. “I didn’t account for the CO2 I was exhaling and kaboom.”

Falling to her knees, she did a quick scan of his body searching for anything out of the ordinary and other than his hair looking like he stuck a fork in a light socket, he seemed fine. Even the scar from when he was impaled as healed up nicely, he wasn’t wearing a shirt after all.

He forced himself up into a sitting position to easy her worry. “I’m okay.” He said, cupping her head in his hand. “I promise to not do anything stupid for a least a week.”

A tear escaped her eye as she threw her arm around his neck, causing him to gasp in pain, and buried her face into his shoulder. “You’re an idiot.” She said into his shoulder.

“I know.” He said, holding her tightly against him. As he laid on the floor after the explosion, his thoughts went to her. What would happen to her if she came back to the HAB and he was dead on the floor? It was enough for him to push himself off the floor and finish the experiment properly, not to say that his life didn’t pass before his eyes as he slid the tray back into the compartment.

She pushed back, still with a look of concern on her face. “Are you okay?”

He nodded. “I’m sore all over, but my ears have stopped ringing and my headache is gone.” He answered before pushing her gently to her feet. “Go get changed, you’re getting dirt all over the bed. I’ll get Happy Days going.”

Beth disappeared to the main lab without another word to strip out of her EVA suit and he reached over to turn on the computer to get the show started. They were on episode 200 of 250 and he wasn’t entirely sure what they were going to do when the show was over. “Hey Beth!” He called out in the silence.

“Yeah?” She called back, he could hear her open and close the microwave from the Potato Dome, soon the sound of popcorn filled the air. The popcorn was from the rainy day supply that NASA sent up for a little pick-me-up as needed and today it was very much needed.

“What are we going to do when Happy Days are over? We’ve only got 50 more episodes.” He asked, hitting play. The theme echoed quietly through the empty HAB.

There was popping, beeping and pouring before she returned back into the room with an answer. “I’ve got stuff on my personal.” She said handing him the bowl of buttery goodness and climbing into bed with him, wearing Beck’s basketball shorts and a tank top.

He looked at her with raised eyebrows. “You mean to tell me that I’ve been stuck watching the Fonz for 40 SOLS and you have stuff on your personal?” He asked, accusing her of hiding stuff from him.

Beth shrugged. “I sort of forgot, I hadn’t even turned it on since before yesterday.” She said, taking a handful of popcorn and setting it in her mouth. “I’ve got a bunch of movies and the Game of Thrones.”

He pushed himself up into a seated position. “We have the Game of Thrones?” He asked, his tone was filled with excitement as he cupped her cheek and pressed a hard kiss against her lips. “You have just saved us from boredom.”

She laughed at his excitement, obviously he was going to be okay. It surprised her though when his eyes dropped to her lips again and slowly he brought them together again in a deep kiss. It was unlike the other kisses that they had shared in the last few weeks, this one was slow and deep. One turned into two and then three kisses in a row until her back ended up on the bed and his hand cupping her face as he straddled her lap, surprisingly limber for someone who just blew up.

When he finally let her up for air, she smiled coyly. “Don’t start something you can’t finish.” She teased.

“I almost died today without doing this. I think I will be okay.” He said collapsing down on to her and turned into kissing her neck, nipping softly at the skin below her ear. “I need you.”

She gasped. “You have me.” She whispered, he sat back on his haunches and pulled up her sweatshirt and t-shirt over her head in one go, leaving her in the tan colored, NASA issued bra. It wasn’t very flattering, but the sight of it made him harden. It really had been awhile since he had seen a woman in less than a t-shirt.

He started to trail kisses down her neck and across her collarbones, so on he reached the top of her breasts and stopped when he reached the fabric. He praised every god that he could think of that the clasp for the bra was on the front.

It too joined her sweatshirt on the floor as his hands began to worship her. “You’re beautiful.” He growled as returned kisses to her skin. A soft whimper escaped her lips as his tongue reached her breasts and her fingers tunneled through his hair.

Her hands soon found the way under the waistband of his pants and it was his turn to gasp. He was already hard when her fingers wrapped around him and it caused him to gasp. She smiled, pleased by his response. He definitely met her approval and she could wait until she would feel herself stretch to take him in.

After a moment or two, he took her hand off of him and laced his fingers through hers. “As much as I would enjoy that.” He said between gasps. “I don’t know how much longer I can last.”

She kissed him soundly. “I won’t judge.” She teased, nipping his neck.

Soon their pants joined the rest of their clothes on the floor and he bit his lip as positioned himself at her entrance. He was suddenly nervous. They had joked about it for so long, had been alone together for so long and suddenly it was actually happening. He swallowed the lump in his throat before slowly pushing himself into her, allowing her time to adjust to him.

She gasped and tossed her head back into the pillow. “Oh fuck.” She breathed.

That alone gave him the motivation to start to move. He bit his lip concentrating on making it last as long as possible, but she was so tight. It took a few moments for his body to remember the rhythm and her cries began to fill the empty HAB.

She pulled him down until their lips met again in a deep kiss that only lasted a few moments because both of them neared their climax. She begged him to move faster, harder as he found enough focus to brush a finger over her clit causing her to scream out as a wave cursed through her body and he soon followed her suit, spilling deep inside of her before collapsing down on her, his face burying into her neck.

Their breaths were the only sounds that mixed with the hum of the equipment that kept them alive for a long time. “We’re not going to populate the planet are we?” He asked, without moving from his position at her neck.

Her chuckle echoed through the room. “No, we are not going to have little Martian babies.” She said, running her hands up and down his slick back.

It took all of his strength to push himself up off of her, suddenly remembering just how sore he was from the explosion and he groaned in pain. He collapsed again, this time onto the bed with an unceremonious sigh. “You okay?” She asked, not bothered to hide the amusement in her voice.

“Better then okay!” He said into the pillow before turning his head to look at her. “We totally need to do that again, when my muscles stop hurting. I can do better.”

She snuggled into his side, lacing her fingers into his. “I’ll hold you to that.”

SOL 46

The Sirius II mission has been delayed.

It had been raining for a solid 24 hours in the Potato Dome.

The day was spent in bed.

SOL 47

They called Sol 47 their Sunday, when in reality it was a Thursday back on earth.

They were the only two people on Mars, so they got to decide what day it was. Today was the day of rest, in bed. Together. Naked.

Okay, they were consummating every surface they could inside the HAB.


	6. Chapter 6

Sol 60

“Ah! They’re moving again.” Mindy announced, sitting up straighter in her seat.  “Still going in a straight line.”

“Where the hell are they going?” Vincent complained as he watched the Rover drive away from the HAB, he threw his glasses onto the table. As a collective, they used ‘they’ when referring to Beth Johanssen and Mark Watney until they knew if both of them were alive or not. “They are two-hundred kilometers from the HAB. Are those the solar cells?”

“Yeah.” Mindy said. “They do the usual two- hour drive, and EVA and then another two-hour drive.”

Vincent groaned. “They sure has hell aren’t going towards the ARES 4 site. . .”

“Well unless they’re not taking a direct root. . .” Mindy Park shrugged. “Trying to avoid. . . a large obstacle?” She knew she sounded stupid, there was nothing out there.

“What obstacle? It’s Acidelia Planetia, there’s nothing out there, except . . .” He said tiredly, but he stopped suddenly.

She turned to look at him. “What?”

He shot to his feet. “I need a map.”

Mindy scrambled to her feet and struggled to keep up with him as he walked out of the room and up the stairs.

They ended up in the café, that had the walls lined with different framed pictures of Mars. When Mindy reached the top step, Vincent was already searching the wall for the one that he needed. He pulled down a middle one, causing one of the servers to shout out at him.

“It’s okay,” Vincent said, “Can I borrow this?” He grabbed a ruler and Expo Marker from some guy working at a table without waiting for an answer.

Vincent sent the picture down on the table, surveying the already familiar surface. “Where’s the HAB?” He asked.

“Right here,” She pointed to a spot near a crater, she had been staring at it for two months now and knew the satellite area very well. “They are right here.”  She pointed two inches away from the HAB.

Vincent marked the picture and drew a line to connect the dots. A sense of realization went across his face. He placed another dot about six inches away from the original dots and nodded. “Okay, I know where they are going.” He announced before turning around to exit the room again. “Pathfinder.”

“Where are you going?” Mindy called out, stunned by his sudden disappearance.

“I’m getting on a plane!” He shouted down the hall, leaving her to apologize to the cranky server and return the supplies to the guy they borrowed them from.

/

Six hours later, he had landed in LAX and another 45 minutes until he was dropped off in front of the Jet Propulsion Laboratories. He was greeted by a pretty blond, but he didn’t catch her name as she led him inside and through the security gates where he came face to face with Bruce Ng. “How was your flight?”

“Not bad.” Vincent said as they strode deeper into the building. “Did you pull the Pathfinder out of storage?”

Bruce nodded tiredly. “Yes, we have it back in the warehouse. We have six original engineers from the initial project who are working on getting it running.”

“Excellent.” Vincent answered.

Bruce hit the elevator button. “I’ll have you know that the Pathfinder lasted a lot longer than we had anticipated, they think it was battery failure.”

Vincent placed a hand on his shoulder. “No one is questioning JPL’s work, but if there are two people in the universe who can get it working after 30 years, is Beth Johanssen and Mark Watney.” They stepped inside the elevator.

/

Commander Lewis made a mistake.

She had allowed Beck to go out on a short EVA to repair a panel. It was supposed to be an easy fix, but Chris was being reckless. He misplaced a bolt and when he went to reach for it, he moved too fast and nearly slipped off the side of the ship and a drift tossed him back into the side of HERMES. Luckily he had the sense to tether himself in because he nearly knocked himself unconscious.

Vogel was on top of it though and was able to keep him steady while he regained his senses.

In the span of the fifteen seconds of the downed communications, Commander Lewis’ heart had stopped beating. Martinez held her hand and kept the level head as he shouted for a status update. “We’re okay.” Vogel said through the silence, sounding breathless. “Beck is okay, he knocked out his coms.”

It took a moment for Commander Lewis’ heart rate to slow down and find her voice, luckily Martinez found his first. “What happened?” He asked.

“Turned too fast and caught a drift.” Vogel answered. “One moment, he’s going to try to reset his coms. I looked away for a moment. . .”

“You’re both okay, that’s all that matters. Are you almost finished?” Squeaked Lewis, unable to get her voice under control.

There was silence for a moment. “We just have to screw the panel into place and it’s finished.” Beck’s voice filled the speakers. “Ten minutes tops.”

It was the second longest stretch of time in Commander Melissa Lewis’ life as she paced nervously outside the airlock for both Vogel and Beck to come back inside the ship. She had decided that Chris Beck, though the EVA specialist and specifically trained to go outside the ship to fix things, was never leaving the ship again.

Anger started to boil deep inside of her. His depression was making him reckless and further jeopardizing the mission, they had eight and a half months until they reached earth and at this rate one or all of them wasn’t going to make it back.

Looking through the small window she could see Vogel and Beck slip inside the airlock and seal the door. Martinez appeared behind her and followed her inside the airlock to help them shed their EVA suits. The silence that surrounded the crew was deafening.

Once Vogel’s stuff was hung neatly in its cubby, him and Martinez excused themselves, not wanting front row seats to the blow up that was bound to happen.

Surprisingly Chris broke the silence. “I know what you’re going to say, so just come out and say it anyway.” He said tiredly as he placed his helmet on the shelf, he’d fix it later. He turned around to face her, he had blood trickling down the side of his face from where he must have slammed his head inside his helmet.

Lewis folded her arms tightly across her chest and she took a breath, she was going to keep her cool. “Do you want to explain to me what happened out there?” She asked, her voice deadly even.

He huffed and rolled his eyes like a petulant teenager. “I misplaced the bolt and I turned around to look for it.” He said. “I turned too fast and caught a drift, my tether threw me into the side of the ship.” He had said it like it wasn’t a big deal.

Her hands went to her hips and her cool was gone. “How can you be so reckless?” She seethed. “You put not only yourself in danger, but also Vogel’s! If the tether hadn’t been done properly or hell if even Vogel was any closer to you. . .”

“But he wasn’t! And it didn’t!” He growled, turning back to his equipment. “I got the job done.”

“You’re not going back out there.” Lewis said firmly.

He turned back to look at her, fire in his eyes. “It is my job, I am the only one qualified to do any work out there.”

“I’m not sending you out there so you can get yourself killed.” She growled, her voice rising in volume.

Beck took a step towards her, his hands clenched in fists. “And by sending anybody else out there is asking for them to get killed, it is what I’m trained to do.” He roared. “It is my job.”

“And it is my job to make sure that you are not going to kill yourself. You are not stepping foot outside this ship, that’s an order.” She shouted back before turning on her heels and marching down the hall. She could hear Beck growl and a crash into the wall, where she assumed that he either kicked the wall, but more likely punched it.

She felt sick to her stomach as she climbed the ladder to the zero g tube with the intentions of going to bed. She felt emotionally dead on the inside.

Lewis passed Vogel, who stopped and waited silently for her to talk to him if she wanted to. The German wasn’t one to pry. “Will you go sit with him?” She asked, her voice cracked and he nodded, heading in the direction that she just came from.

Her feet led her towards the rec room instead, remembering that she had a call to earth to report about today’s EVA.  

After a few commands she was face to virtual face with Teddy Saunders, Annie Montrose, and Mitch Henderson. “Good evening Commander Lewis.” Said Teddy Saunders.

She nodded and tiredly pulled her hair out of its hold and took a deep breath.

/

There was a sinking building in the pit of Teddy’s stomach. It was the same feeling he got when he received the early morning call that they had aborted the mission early and two of the astronauts had not survived. He had never wanted to feel it again, but the look on Commander Lewis’ face brought it back.

She looked haggard.

“What do you have to report on today’s EVA?” Asked Mitch carefully. He broke the silence, because neither of them knew what to say.

She took a stabilizing breath as she pulled her hair out of its tie. “It’s finished.” She answered plainly. They waited for the Commander to continue, but she looked as if she was struggling to get the words together. “It was successful,”

“But?” Prodded Annie.

Her resolved broke as buried her face into her hands. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep him alive.” She breathed out. It was so soft that they almost missed what she said.

“Commander Lewis, would you please explain?” Asked Teddy worriedly, they had chosen her to lead this mission because of her strong stoic demeanor. She commanded submarines filled with thousands of men and didn’t bat an eye lash, but for her to break down now was bad. “Who are you speaking about?”

“Doctor Beck.” Commander Lewis said, she explained what had happened during the EVA and didn’t skip on any details. Teddy could hear the blood rushing through his ears and his heart race as he listened to the near miss on the side of the ship. He couldn’t lose another on the HERMES, they were pushing it on having 4 to get back to earth safely.

“He’s being reckless.” She concluded. “I worry that he’s going to do something stupid, he’s already on around the clock surveillance to make sure that he isn’t going to hurt himself. I told him that he couldn’t go back out on an EVA.”

Teddy listened confused, she hadn’t reported on his behavior ever. This was all new to them. “How long has this been going on?” He asked.

Her breath hitched. “Since Johanssen and Watney died.” She answered.  It was like a kick to his chest, Mitch gave him an ‘I told you so’ look, but kept quiet. “He’s really withdrawn, only talks when it’s a necessity. Hardly sleeps and when he does, it’s filled with nightmares.”

“You’ve never reported on his behavior before.” Mitch stated after a few moments of silence.

“I was hoping that it would get better.” She answered truthfully. “He did seem to be getting better. He’s been eating better, he started exercising again and then he goes and pulls a stupid stunt like this. I know it isn’t his fault, but it didn’t even phase him! He couldn’t care less if he got ripped off the side of the ship.”

Teddy sat down in the chair in front of the screen. “Do you know the root cause of his behavior?” He asked, obviously searching for more than the deaths of his crewmates.

She took a deep breath and ran a hand through her curls again. Lewis was quietly trying to find the words to say to them when Annie spoke up. “He was in love with Johanssen.” She said evenly, she folded her arms across her chest and waited expectantly.

Lewis nodded as she exhaled forcefully. “Yeah.” She answered and a look of panic filled Teddy’s eyes. “And Mark was his best friend.”

It was a punch in the gut, of course they knew about the attraction between Doctor Christopher Beck and Beth Johanssen. The psychologists were thorough in their evaluations and reported that even though majorly clichéd, that the two youngest astronauts would fall in love. Commander Lewis, the only one out of the crew who read the evaluations, was adamant that it was wrong and that they were beyond professional and focused on the mission. She was told to address it, she talked to the boys about keeping their hands and other body parts to themselves and it was over.

“He never told her though.” Lewis said quietly, trying to get across that they hadn’t broken any rules yet. She was trying to spare him any grief in the future and they all knew that. “He told me when we first got back to the HERMES, he was waiting until they got back to earth.”

Teddy sat back in his chair and his resolve to tell her about the two survivors who were back on the surface, at least he assumed that there was two and suddenly he felt sick, if he had to tell them that only one survivor was back on Mars, it would be worse. He sucked in a breath and kept his resolve, he was going to wait until they had a solid plan. “Listen Commander Lewis, get some sleep and take the weekend off, all of you to get your bearings. We will have the psychologists look over your notes and come up with a game plan to get Beck back.”

She nodded and said her goodbyes before disconnecting the feed, leaving the three and the tech in the silent room. Annie glared at him. “Why didn’t you tell her?” She hissed.

Before Teddy could speak, Mitch spoke up. “We can’t tell them until we know if both of them survived.” He answered, surprising both of them. He had been the biggest supporter of telling them from the beginning. “If we told them that Watney was alive and Johanssen didn’t make it, or worse if Johannsen survived and Watney didn’t, who knows what Doctor Beck would do.”

It was then that the door was thrusted open and a breathless Mindy Park trotted in, looking frazzled. “Vincent figured out where they were going.” She said through heavy breaths.

The three shared a look, that was some good news. “Where?” Asked Teddy, jumping to his feet.

“They are going to go find the Pathfinder.” She answered brightly. “They are going to try to communicate with us.”


End file.
